Petition to rename Trisha Paytas's baby Hulkamania
And what will become of the Hooters IP now?!
Hey there!
Hope it’s been smooth sailing since we last met. My air conditioner remains broken, but I borrowed a neighbor’s and it’s currently saving my life on this 100-degree day in New York City.
Gaza has been weighing heavy on my heart, as it always is, but the news and the photos of the mass starvation this week have been additionally devastating. Writers Against the War on Gaza provided this helpful list of places to donate in their most recent newsletter so I thought I would share in case you’re currently feeling as despondent as I am about the state of the world and in need of taking some small action:
Salah Shabat, brother of martyred journalist Hossam Shabat, is raising funds to provide displaced families in the north of Gaza with clean drinking water. Their goal of $2500 per week ensures the project continues – with building irrigation systems alongside the delivery of water and food. tinurl.com/northwateraid
The Sameer Project is a donations-based aid initiative in Gaza led by Palestinians. Their multiple campaigns serve families across Gaza with medical supplies, food, tents, and other necessities. linktr.ee/thesameerproject
Amal for Palestine is an organization founded in 2021 providing financial help, services, and meals for families in Gaza. Since the escalation of the genocide, Amal for Palestine has continuously raised funds for food and other necessities for displaced Palestinians in the north of Gaza. givebutter.com/SevBF8
Gaza Soup Kitchen is run by the Almadhoun family and their friends. Gaza Soup Kitchen sources ingredients from remaining farms, and buys supplies as soon as they hit the market in order to provide hot meals for displaced families. Based in the north of Gaza, they feed around 3,000 people daily. tinyurl.com/gazakitchn
Water for Khan Younis is an initiative to support clean drinking water for displaced Palestinians in Al-Mawasi, in southern Gaza. With the donations so far, they have been able to deliver two drinking water trucks on a daily basis (6,000L or 7,500L each day). tinyurl.com/khanyouniswater
Food, Water & Hope for a Mum in Gaza. Nour Abdel Latif, a poet, mother, teacher, and student of martyr Refaat Alareer, is raising funds to keep her family alive. $100 US / $150 AUD per day can help buy enough basic food for the family to cook over their fire. https://chuffed.org/project/139658-food-water-hope-for-a-mum-in-gaza
As for what’s happening in my silly little neck of the woods, I went to Polyester magazine’s e-girl summit on Wednesday hosted by dear friend of the letter and mixer and mingler par excellence,
. It was a lot of fun — I met some folks, realized I am not nearly as online as I think I am, and left with a delicious cookie and this thermal printer thing! I also spent probably an hour so locked in on making a collage that I didn’t speak to a single person. I forgot how much I love a cut-and-paste craft moment. Please, everyone, send me your old magazines ASAP so I can decorate a binder or something.And after a lengthy respite from the prying eyes of the press, it seems they’ve found me again. Since weaning off Twitter and learning to cope by using Notes, I’ve managed to evade the classic social media pitfall wherein publications would freely use my tweets to create content I feel like they could’ve just paid me to write. (It actually used to happen so often, I made a whole page on my website just to try and document the phenomenon.) But this week Glamour got me! They ferreted me out of my Substack hidey-hole and published my pop culture opinion for the world to see. But at least they called me a “fashion soothsayer.” Compliments will get you everywhere, my friends. And I will be putting that on my resume as an official endorsement.
Before we begin, a note to say that I am going to do a livestream for paid subs on Sunday night at 6pm EST! You will get an email when it starts, and I’m excited to chat with you all there! I’d love to answer any questions you might have, invite readers on to speak their piece, or just peruse the Daily Mail sidebar. I’m thinking it will be like ~30 mins, but happy to go for an hour if there’s interest.
We’re also in the final days to get your subscription to Mess at a deep discount because it’s my birthday on Monday!!! So give both of us a present by locking in like me doing decoupage and upgrade today. Especially as you are not going to want to miss part two of The Battle of Versailles video I put up yesterday. If you’re into fashion history at all, I promise this is going to be very much your bag.
Ok. It’s about that time.
To begin, we must discuss the very topic that got me snitched on in Glamour this week — The Devil Wears Prada 2. I want to believe. I want to love everything this film has in store for us. But I’m just having a couple of concerns. Like the fact that every outfit I’ve seen thus far comes with a point of contention, especially if I’m meant to believe this story is set in the present-day fashion industry. Perhaps in classic Ryan Murphy style, all of these paparazzi shots are just “camera tests,” but as I said re: American Love Story that seems like an extremely generous read.
The first outfit we’ve seen from Meryl Streep is solid enough, and while people were getting all worked up over the blinged-out water bottle, I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s not Miranda Priestly’s but Meryl’s personal canteen, and I think that rules. Besides, the real problem here is not a $100 water bottle, but rather this round-toe platform pump. To my mind, Miranda is unquestionably an old-school stiletto-'til-I-die kinda gal à la Carine Roitfeld whose spine I showed you last week.
As for Annie Hathaway, much like Miranda, everything here is FINE, I suppose. I just wish there was something that really thrilled. Also, the costume designer is Molly Rogers who worked in the costume department on the first movie and also at SATC, so what is going on...
As Glamour said, the vintage Jean Paul Gaultier pinstripe suite is pretty unassailable, but I must assail these choices in boot and handbag. Why a vintage Coach messenger worn at the hip? Why not this $4K Valentino shoulder bag in the very next image? The Re/Done x Ford 2022 jumpsuit is also, you know, whatever, although a bit oddly styled. Why the chunky Chanel sandal? Anne has been wearing these in a lot of paparazzi photos lately, so I’m hoping they’re just her on-set slippers. But I fear they are a contractual piece of footwear in the vein of the “are you wearing the Chanel boots” meme.
All that said, and despite my closely-held belief that we need to put a moratorium on all reboots indefinitely, I am very much looking forward to this film, and I feel like we should all book a theater for a group screening NOW.
Miu Miu Finally Caves
There was also a special request from a Messketeer this week for my thoughts on the new Kylie Jenner Miu Miu campaign, which I must confess I don’t think is really worth any of my thought. The long and short of it is I’ve yet to see a brand make a KarJenner work for them versus the other way around. I also think
’s piece on the subject nailed the general weirdness of this choice in terms of Miu Miu’s brand identity.This campaign doesn’t totally surprise me, as both Kylie and Kim have been wearing logo-centric Miu Miu pieces heavily over the last year in outfits that to me read as paid ads but of course have not been disclosed as such. I also think this campaign makes sense in Kylie’s broader push to come across as vaguely artsier. As I’ve written about in the past and as we’ve seen over the last couple of years, since publicly affiliating with Timmy, a serious rebrand has been afoot chez Kylie, and part of that involves being perceived as more of an indie fashion darling.
But what does surprise me is that Miu Miu would be willing to risk their audience and current literary e-girl status with the youth just to cast her. Especially when I would think we are quite far past the heyday of her influence. The one thing I will say to Miu Miu’s credit regarding this otherwise forgettable campaign is that at least I have never seen Kylie look like she does above in a professional photograph. They should’ve really leaned into this whole slack-faced, dead-behind-the-eyes thing, and we might’ve actually had something to work with here.
Paywall Those Dogs Part 2
To cleanse the palate, here’s LeBron James with his tootsies tastefully on display. Tom Brady could learn a lot from him. For quite some time now,
has been attempting to awaken the masses to the fact that, “slipping your foot into Vibram FiveFingers is like the ultimate body high that starts at the digit.” And now finally, this NBA GOAT is vibing with the best of them in a pair of his own. And not just vibing, but incorporating them into his wardrobe in a street style kind of way instead of strictly wearing them in a sporty context. A FiveFinger with a blazer — now we’re talking. I’m also partial to this aesthetic because it proves yet again that my highly controversial water shoe summer forecast is nowhere near as far-fetched as so many seem to think. All of these shoes exist on a continuum with those mesh slip-ons by The Row, and you cannot convince me otherwise.Woman’s World
Moving right along, while TikTok has taught me that no one should be paying to go see the Lifetimes tour, I must say, it seems like the costume design for these shows has been getting better and better. This outfit in particular is my favorite thus far. It melds Katy’s saccharine, camp past with this new album’s apocalyptic Chromatica-lite aesthetic. The melted and warped peppermint swirls from her iconic 2011 dress are now trapped beneath this soap scum-hued latex. And these wads of cotton candy molded into raver boots were practically built to attract dirt and grime. More of this, please!
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Panniers Go Mainstream
I saw this very hippy gown on Sarah Niles at the Fantastic Four premiere, and it struck me that we’re currently witnessing the fashion trickle-down effect of the pannier skirt. The winged oblique has now become normalized. It has officially entered the pantheon of de rigueur red carpet silhouettes. Who would’ve thunk it. As for this particular example, Sarah’s take doesn’t really move me, but I do think body-morphing gowns make a whole lot of sense at a superhero-themed event. I am also slowly being driven mad by that solitary rogue string dangling off the back of this right hip shelf.
Country Club Chic
I found the Happy Gilmore green carpet to be the surprise treat of the week. I love that everyone trotted out their finest country club attire for the evening. I felt Bad Bunny mixed prints like a pro, while the choice in ballet flats felt gentlemanly yet fresh. And I was equally pleased to see Amber Ruffin give the fanny pack its red carpet due. But easily my best dressed of the night has to go to Adam Sandler’s mom Judy. There’s something about these graphic stripes of polka dot trim that is very compelling, especially when paired with these gorgeously tailored trousers. But my favorite part of the whole ensemble is the pearls juxtaposed against this baseball cap. It’s giving me instant flashbacks of that one singular time I said Blake Lively looked kind of cool.
Quit Playing Games with My Heart
As we wind down here today, one of the last things I need to discuss is all the canoodling currently transpiring betwixt our dear friends Pamela Anderson and Liam Neeson while promoting Naked Gun. They had best not be playing with our hearts. I feel exactly the same about their promotional will-they-won't-they as I did when rumors about Meryl Streep and Martin Short first kicked off during their press tour for Only Murders in the Building. I fear Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell have started a dangerous trend, and I simply cannot take this being another PR stunt. So if it is, stop it right now!!! I need hope. I need to believe in love. I need these two to be dating for realsies.
When not attempting to decipher this duo’s body language and micro-expressions, I was also struck by this particular shot of Pam in motion. I am obsessed with the calligraphy-esque silhouette that’s been created here. And the leopard print pillbox hat with this heel perfectly bookends everything else going on. I think this is so editorial. Again, it reminds me of Jonathan Anderson’s built-off-the-body paper doll dresses. I’d love to see more of these kinds of 2D graphic shape layered atop the human form in addition to all the tumorous protrusions we’ve been seeing so much of lately.
Sorry, Not Sorry
And the last thing I have to share with you today is this absolutely haunting piece of information that, once again, I did not consent to be party to. But if I have to read it, now so do you. As always, these two are truly cursed soulmates. I hate and utterly respect their PR prowess. This wedding is going to be the reality TV spectacle of the century, and I can’t wait to bear witness to it.
Ok, buckaroos. That’s been my brain dump for today. I’ll see paid subs on Sunday for a fun live chat and the rest of you back here next week with a brand new episode of the podcast. Toodles!
We’re in the final days of discounted subscriptions with a lot of fun perks on the horizon…..Don’t deprive yourself of the glamour!:
You’re going to need some help unpacking these troubled style concoctions, so why not treat your bestie to something a little bit messier:
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I LOVE a vibram five finger, love a shoe that makes other people feel Disgust, but my god even on my best day i would never describe the experience as a "full body high" lmfao wow
Sadly, I'll be fast asleep on UK time for your live, but I hope it goes well!!!